PURIS - which recently opened a facility in Dawson, Minnesota that more than doubled its production capacity, cementing its position as the leading supplier of pea protein in North America - has moved into new territory with its first consumer brand dedicated...
After filing for protection under the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Code earlier this week, Vital Pharmaceuticals, Inc (VPX Sports), the parent company of Bang Energy, has a challenging road ahead. But its most recent financial misfortune isn't the final...
Billed as the “world’s first protein-boosted hard juice,” BUILD by Pulp Culture adds an intriguing new twist to the functional beverage space with a 4.9% ABV fermented juice laced with adaptogens, probiotics,* and a highly-soluble, ‘near invisible’ animal-free...
Nature’s Fynd - a startup growing protein-packed food from microbes with a fraction of the environmental footprint of meat or dairy – is rolling out dairy-free cream cheeses to Sprouts nationwide.
Singaporean snack brand IRVINS is broadening its reach into the US snacking category with its salted egg chips and salted egg salmon skins, which have become some of the most popular snacks across Southeast Asia.
Natural Products Expo East may not be as big as its West Coast counterpart, but the 18,500 registered attendees and more than 1,200 exhibitors who convened in Philadelphia earlier this month for the annual conference were just as enthusiastic and the...
While plant-based is still one of the hottest trends in food and beverage, sales and consumer engagement with alternative proteins have slid in recent quarters – prompting some players in the space to rethink their strategy.
Frozen Greek yogurt brand Yasso has surpassed $200m in retail sales this year, but the real growth is just on the horizon as it embraces its national brand status becoming the #4 frozen novelty at retail and #1 fastest-growing brand across the total...
Allergy-friendly (free of the top nine allergens) cookie and baking mix brand Partake Foods has raised $11.5m in Series B funding to scale its business and social impact to reach more diverse consumer audiences.
PATH, a sustainable aluminum bottled water company, has closed $30m in Series A funding to continue its mission of eliminating single-use plastic bottles from going into landfills and oceans with its 100% refillable aluminum water bottles.
The western diet – and the food system that underpins it – is becoming increasingly unsustainable, for the health of humans and the planet. So how do we futureproof the food system to deliver healthier, more sustainable products that nourish our bodies...
Equii (formerly Cella Farms) - a startup founded by two food industry veterans using fermentation to create lower carb, high-protein grain flours - has raised $6M in seed funding in a round* led by Khosla Ventures as it gears up to launch its first product:...
Plant-powered culinary brand Wicked Kitchen has raised $20m in bridge funding from backers including actor and vegan activist Woody Harrelson, Ahimsa VC, and NRPT (Thailand's leading food producer and innovator).
By using a patent-pending algorithm to pair and assess physiological responses to stress and diet tracked by smart watches with psychological data gathered through an online quiz, food-tech start-up myAir has found a way to overcome one of the biggest...
Santiago-based NotCo - which claims to offer superior products in the alt meat set through the use of an artificial intelligence platform called ‘Giuseppe’ - is gearing up to enter the increasingly crowded US plant-based chicken category with NotChicken,...
Functional beverage brand Recess (tagline: ‘We canned a feeling’) has picked up a flurry of new accounts for its magnesium- and adaptogen-infused Recess Mood sparkling beverage line, and predicts it will increase distribution from 4,000 to 8,000 stores...
Vanilla Vida – an Israeli startup addressing the huge mismatch between supply and demand in the natural vanilla market – is exploring locations in the US as it ramps up its indoor growing platform for vanilla planifolia plants with significantly higher...
InnovaFeed, a French company with global ambitions in the edible insect arena, has raised $250m in a series D round* backed by agri-food giants including ADM and Cargill, and says it will break ground on a large-scale production facility to farm black...
Perfect Day – which pioneered the production of ‘animal-free’ dairy proteins using microbes instead of cows – has announced a new brand identity for its enterprise biology business, nth Bio, and unveiled its first publicly-announced partner: Finnish startup...
The FDA’s stance that CBD is not legal as a dietary ingredient as it was first investigated as a drug has not hindered consumer interest in CBD-infused food and beverage products, claims Matt Oscamou, co-founder of CBD sparkling water brand Weller, which...
Knowing entrepreneurs often dramatically underestimate the time it takes to validate their business models, are more likely to lose money or break even than make a profit and face abysmal failure rates, one successful founder is offering a helping hand...
North Carolina based Elo Life Systems aims to commercialize a new natural high-intensity sweetener “inspired by monk fruit” in 2025 that boasts a “cleaner” taste profile, more affordable price tag, and a higher sweetness intensity than monk fruit extracts...
What is a snack? A treat, a mini-meal, a mid-afternoon pick me up? What do consumers look for – and avoid - on labels, and how has the pandemic influenced eating habits and snacking behaviors?
Wicked Kitchen – a plant-powered brand with a distinct culinary bent developed by chefs Derek and Chad Sarno – has acquired plant-based seafood brand Good Catch (also founded by the Sarno brothers), which CEO Pete Speranza says is “100% accretive” and...
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is an agreement to build a facility for the cultivation and production of microalgae-based protein and related products for the food and beverage industry.
Forsea Foods has developed cell-cultured fish leveraging its patented organoid technology. FoodNavigator hears how this novel approach is simplifying the process of growing animal cells in bioreactors and assembling them into whole cuts and fillets.
From Reishi to Lion’s Mane, medicinal mushrooms are gaining traction in foods, beverages and supplements, buoyed by interest in ingredients that may support immunity, mood and cognition. FoodNavigator-USA caught up with California-based organic mushroom...
Shiru – a California-based startup producing proteins via microbial fermentation – has teamed up with bakery ingredients specialist Puratos to develop the next-generation of egg replacers.
Sacred Serve, a Chicago startup making non-dairy gelato using upcycled coconut meat as its star ingredient, is expanding to Whole Foods stores nationwide where it aims to set a new standard for the category.
Offering great value for money and some sustainability bona fides (low food waste/easy recycling), the canned food aisle has obvious attractions, especially if you're on a tight budget. But it’s not exactly the place you go to discover exciting new...
After dominating the UK CBD space with help from a highly engaged online fanbase, CBD beverage, oil and gummy brand Trip is hoping to cement a similar position in the US – but this time with the additional aid of $12m in funding from prominent entrepreneurs...
TurtleTree says it can produce the protein up to a 100 times faster and at a larger scale to make the hard-to-get ingredient more accessible to food manufacturers.
Israeli start-up Pigmentum is producing biomolecules for the food industry in transgenic plants. Co-founder Tal Lutzky explains how the technology works, which hurdles stand in the way of commercialisation, and whether consumers are willing to drink ‘lettuce...
“It has been clear for a while that plant-based analogs will not displace meat,” says the CEO of Israeli cell-cultured (a.k.a. ‘cultivated’) meat co Aleph Farms. “The addressable market is larger for cultivated meat than for plant-based because the products...
Still a niche segment within the plant-based food category, plant-based yogurt is poised to become a much larger piece of the chilled dairy set as consumers find products that can closely mimic the taste and mouthfeel of its conventional dairy counterparts,...
Health and wellness company Laird Superfood has confirmed its receipt of an unsolicited offer from EF Hutton SPV I LLC to acquire the company's outstanding common stock for $3.00 per share in cash.
Chamberlain Coffee, a DTC-focused brand created by YouTube star Emma Chamberlain, has sealed a $7m Series A funding round led by Blazar Capital and a stacked roster of DTC, retail, and beverage industry investors.
As the average retail price of chicken eggs has surged 51% in the past year, JUST Egg has reduced pricing for its 12-ounce plant-based liquid egg product by 41%, reaching cost parity with premium chicken egg competitors, according to recent data from...
Microbes can produce a host of ingredients traditionally made by plants or animals more sustainably and efficiently. But if you want to make complex plant-based ingredients such as coffee or cocoa, single-celled microorganisms such as yeast and bacteria...
Plant-based yogurt brand, Lavva, has been acquired by Brooklyn-based venture firm Next in Natural and has appointed a new CEO, Jeff Lichtenstein, to help the brand keep up with consumer demand and produce additional innovation.
Fresh off closing a $3.9m seed funding round* led by Unovis Asset Management, Paragon Pure is debuting its OléPBM alternative fat technology made from rice bran oil, which it claims outperforms palm and coconut oils in plant-based meat products.
Sustainability “is probably on slide two or three of every customer presentation now,” notes Ingredion, but how can consumers cut through the PR noise to make meaningful comparisons between brands? Checkout our final gallery of trends at IFT FIRST exploring...
Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown faced another grilling from analysts on the firm’s Q2 earnings call Thursday after posting a $97.1m net loss on net sales of $147m, lowering guidance for the full year from $560-$620m to $470m-$520m, and cutting 4% of its global...
Boston-based food tech firm Motif FoodWorks has promoted its CTO Dr Michael Leonard to the role of CEO, effective immediately, as current CEO Jonathan McIntyre moves to an advisory role in the company.
Fungi-fueled startup firm MyForest Foods (formerly Atlast Food Co) has started commissioning ‘Swersey Silos,’ a new production facility in Green Island, New York, which will start churning out meaningful quantities of mycelium-based meat by the end of...
Dollar sales of refrigerated liquid plant-based creams and creamers were up +25.8% year-on-year to $527.4m in measured US retail channels* in the year to July 10, 2022, while unit sales were up +16.1%, led by strong growth in blends and ‘other’ (which...
Fine chemicals co DIC and San Diego-based startup Debut Biotech are developing a vibrant natural red color that is heat-stable, light-stable, and stable across a wide pH range, using a novel hybrid approach combining microbial fermentation and ‘cell-free’...
Bay area startup Zero Acre Farms - which is deploying microbial fermentation to produce oils and fats it claims can outperform rivals in the nutrition and sustainability stakes – has launched direct to consumer with a ‘cultured’ cooking oil boasting a...
